Reliable and efficient compressors and systems including compressors have been developed and are utilized in a myriad of industrial processes (e.g., petroleum refineries, offshore oil production platforms, and subsea process control systems). Generally, conventional compressors are utilized to compress gas, typically by applying mechanical energy to the gas in a low pressure environment and transporting the gas to and compressing the gas within a high pressure environment, such that the compressed gas may be utilized to perform work or for operation of one or more downstream process components.
As conventional compressors are increasingly used in offshore oil production facilities and other environments facing space constraints, there is an ever-increasing demand for smaller, lighter, and more compact compressors. In addition to the foregoing, it is desirable for commercial purposes that the compact compressors achieve higher compression ratios (e.g., 10:1 or greater) while maintaining a compact arrangement.
In view of the foregoing, skilled artisans may often attempt to achieve the higher compression ratios by increasing the number of compression stages within the compact compressor. Increasing the number of compression stages, however, increases the overall number of components (e.g., impellers and/or other intricate parts) required to achieve the desired compressor throughput (e.g., mass flow) and pressure rise to achieve the higher compression ratios. Increasing the number of components required in these compact compressors may often increase length requirements for the rotary shaft and/or increase distance requirements between rotary shaft bearings. The imposition of these requirements often results in larger, less compact compressors as compared to compact compressors utilizing fewer compression stages. Further, in many cases, increasing the number of compression stages in the compact compressors may still not provide the desired higher compression ratios or, if the desired compression ratios are achieved, the compact compressors may exhibit decreased efficiencies that make the compact compressors commercially undesirable.
At least one known proposed solution to the above-mentioned constraints of conventional compact compressors has been the utilization of supersonic compressors to achieve higher compression ratios while maintaining a compact structure. At least some of the known supersonic compressors utilize a supersonic compressor rotor to achieve greater single-stage pressure ratios than conventional compressors. In doing so, at least some of the known supersonic compressors discharge gas from a flow channel formed therein in an axial direction, thereby requiring downstream components of the supersonic compressor rotor to be capable of receiving axial flow. Accordingly, an efficiency of compressing the gas may be limited to the efficiency of the axial-flow supersonic compressor rotor. Such a limitation may present challenges to the commercial viability of the supersonic compressor.
What is needed, then, is an efficient supersonic compression system and method thereof that provides increased compression ratios in a compact arrangement that is economically and commercially viable.